Increases in the extent of integration of electronics has facilitated the introduction of a range of handheld devices including handheld cellular telephones, Personal Digital Assistants (PDA), laptop computers, portable Digital Versatile Disc (DVD) players, and handheld game consoles to name of few. Such devices are typically equipped with color Liquid Crystal Displays (LCD). The quality of the images presented on the displays plays an important role in determining the quality of the user experience in using such devices. Given that the devices are portable, they can be used under wide-ranging lighting conditions. The ambient light present when using such devices may be diffuse or more direct, vary in color and vary widely in intensity. Furthermore, the sensitivity and response of people's eyes is a function of the ambient light. The foregoing factors lead to displays working best under certain lighting conditions, and not as well under other lighting conditions. It would be desirable to mitigate the effect of ambient lighting variation on effective display quality.